Author: Simon Reed

I was lucky enough a few weeks before Christmas to see The Temperance Movement during their ‘Small Rooms New Tunes’ tour – you can read about that here. The small room was Soho institution The Borderline. The new tunes were first public outings for tracks that would later appear on the band’s third studio release A Deeper Cut. Well the new record is here and I’ve just had the pleasure of experiencing the new tunes again; this time though on the first date of the Deeper Cut tour in the rather larger environs of Concorde 2 in Brighton. It’s...

When there are two bands that both make use of the name ‘Yes‘, both feature long-term members of the band Yes, and are both performing in separate tours marking the 50th anniversary of the band Yes, you’d be forgiven for allowing yourself to get a little confused. The ‘official’ version of the band (at least the version that has rights to use the classic Roger Dean logo) features the instantly recognisable guitar playing of Steve Howe and the drumming of Alan White, who also holds the record for the longest tenure of anybody in the band. The ‘other’ version might not have these attributes,...

Having previously revealed The Libertines and Kaiser Chiefs at the top of the bill for Friday night, Victorious (24-26 August 2018), the UK’s biggest metropolitan festival has today announced its huge Saturday and Sunday headliners, electronic pioneers The Prodigy (Sunday) and rock legend Paul Weller (Saturday). Topping the bill with a UK festival exclusive is one of the most exhilarating, influential and chaotic electronic bands of the past 20 years – The Prodigy. Following six no.1 albums and jaw-dropping live performances across the world, the original masters of big beat remain one of the most successful electronic acts of all time. This live show...

The Hollywood Vampires, a supergroup comprising the incredible talents of Alice Cooper, Joe Perry and Johnny Depp have today announced a run of four huge tour dates in the UK. What started with an intimate, star-studded show at the Roxy Theatre in Los Angeles for family and friends resulted in the Vampires trekking across the globe during their short summer break before Joe, Alice, and Johnny had to return to their day jobs. That wildly successful summer tour in 2016 took them to more than 23 cities and 7 countries – traversing the world from Verona to New York to Bucharest...

Following on from the critically acclaimed and commercially successful third year in 2017, Ramblin’ Man Fair returns in 2018! This year the festival will move from its traditional end of July slot to the 30th June and 1st July 2018 Ramblin’ Man Fair is pleased to announce the next wave of bands for the event in 2018. These include The Cult (Main Stage Headliner, UK Exclusive), Gun (Main Stage), Chas & Dave (Blues Stage), Me & That Man (Country Stage), Goldray and Voyager (Both Prog In The Park Stage) with many more acts to be announced… The Cult (Main...

Extreme formed an essential part of the soundtrack to my youth. Their debut album may have looked (and let’s be honest here) sounded like an offering from a formulaic late eighties hair metal band, but with the release of Pornograffitti and III Sides To Every Story, the Boston four-piece cemented themselves as artists of real creative integrity. Their amalgam of hard rock, pop and funk – cemented by creamy harmony vocals gave them a sound that was uniquely theirs. And then there was Nuno. Nuno Bettencourt, born in the Azores of Portuguese descent quickly established himself as one of...

Sometimes you just have to be in the right place at the right time. The right place was the Hawley Arms during the Camden Rocks Festival on a glorious early June day this year. The right time was around half past four in the afternoon when a band of which I was previously unaware called REWS occupied the stage. They were excellent – to me, by far the most enjoyable act of the day. Ironically, Since the Camden Rocks appearance I’ve done little else but hear about REWS. Later in the month, they graced the John Peel Stage at...

Victorious, taking place from 24-26 August 2018, is the UK’s biggest metropolitan festival. The bill has been revealed for its opening Friday night – and it contains a quartet of the best live party bands the UK indie scene has ever produced – The Libertines, Kaiser Chiefs, Shed Seven & The Lightning Seeds. Last year’s inaugural Friday night Opening Party with Madness was such a resounding success organisers have decided to do it again – only bigger and better with all the live action taking place in the huge main arena. Saturday/Sunday headliners will be announced soon but given last...

Malcolm Young died earlier this week. As I squeeze into a space at the front at Soho institution the Borderline, the PA soundtrack is non-stop AC/DC. It’s a good metaphor for tonight’s headline, The Temperance Movement. They’re both gravel-throat fronted blues-rock bands with emphasis on the rock. They’re both at home in front of a stadium crowd (‘The Temp’ – as TTM frontman Phil Campbell calls them, supported The Rolling Stones on their 2014 European and 2015 US tours). They’re both an absolute blast live. As Malcolm and Angus fill the pre-support void I’m left wondering whether there...

Adam Granduciel is a musical genius. But The War On Drugs’ singer, guitarist, songwriter, producer, and sonic mastermind is not a natural showman. There’s little time for pleasantries, just a few hurried “thank you’s” and one “I’m so psyched to be here”. There’s no waving of arms or pointing at the crowd, so even coming to the front of the stage during one of his fluid guitar solos is completely out of the question. Granduciel’s obviously aware of his self-restraint on stage, telling the Guardian just a few weeks ago he wishes he could “Bono it up a little...

Los Angeles-based multi-platinum hard rock band, Five Finger Death Punch are excited to reveal that they will be releasing a greatest hits album, A Decade of Destruction on December 1st. The compilation will include two new tracks – the first new music the band has released in over 2 years. In addition, FFDP have released as a single one of the new tracks from the album, titled Trouble. Five Finger Death Punch are also pleased to announce they will be releasing their seventh full-length studio album during Spring 2018. The album follows their critically acclaimed 2015 chart-topping hit album Got Your Six, which featured...

Public Service Broadcasting are a band that know how to polarise opinion. If people get it, they really get it. I’ve found if they don’t, they really don’t. If you’ve not yet attained ‘I really get/don’t get this’ status and are currently unaware of the PSB shtick, it runs as follows: they look like they’re on university lecturer day release; bow ties and corduroy jackets abound. The band don’t really go a bundle on singing either, so in the absence of that they trawl film and audio libraries looking for vocal samples which they then put to music. To...

A year ago to the day, The Amazons struggled to sell 300 tickets to a show at OSLO in Hackney. Tonight, they’ve sold out The Forum. That’s 2300 people – and a year-on-year increase of 666%, if you’re counting. Chances are, nobody in this Kentish Town landmark is. After all, there are more pressing matters, like being blown away by four young musicians with a one-way ticket to The O2 Arena stage. A thrilling rock band with songs as hot as the van blazing on their debut album’s cover, the quartet’s success is definitely deserved, but certainly not overnight....

Unless you’re a fan of Game Of Thrones, or else otherwise just ‘of a certain age’, it’s unlikely you’d have heard of Wilko Johnson until 2013 – when it was disclosed he was suffering from terminal pancreatic cancer. This news, or more specifically his reaction to it (embarking on a farewell tour and a Gold selling album collaboration with Roger Daltrey) put him in the public consciousness in a manner he’d not seen since the early 1970s. Back then, he was the wide-eyed, amphetamine fuelled guitarist of ‘Thames Delta’ R&B band Dr Feelgood and he could be seen skittering...

It’s rather pleasant outside and whilst we’re still occasionally getting a whiff of Indian Summer, there’s no stopping the inevitable slide into rain, wind, gutters full of leaves and longer evenings. What better time then to hark back to images of three of the best days of weather and music that Summer 2017 had to offer: Victorious Festival. Of course, you don’t only go to the seaside for the sun, and Southsea’s 2017 Victorious Festival had arguably its finest ever line up this year. When the sun goes down, the party continues… …and the headliners come out to play....

Fast rising rock band The Amazons continue their surge as they share a new video for fan favourite track Ultraviolet. The video captures the band excelling in an environment that matches the raw energy of their gigs. Each scene was shot on 16mm film, with dynamic animations scraped by hand, frame by frame onto the negative before being run back through the scanner. The video was directed by Oscar Sansom who has previously worked with Biffy Clyro, Belle and Sebastian, Idlewidl and Twin Atlantic amongst others. “I wanted to create a video that really celebrates the energy of The Amazons’ live...

2017 is certainly a special year for Wilko Johnson. Not only does it mark the 30th anniversary of the Wilko Johnson Band, but this year sees the guitarist celebrating his 70th birthday. Given the events of recent years, this celebration at the Royal Albert Hall on Tuesday 26th September is all the more meaningful: here is the death-defying Wilko Johnson leading his own party with partners in crime Norman Watt-Roy (bass), Dylan Howe (drums), family, friends and special guests. Wilko’s special guest at the Royal Albert Hall show is Dr John Cooper Clarke – poet, movie star, rock star,...

I am local to Portsmouth, and I admit that I became slightly concerned before attending my third Victorious Festival. Victorious refuses to stop growing. It engulfs the entire city, with stages on the southernmost coast, and a new campsite on Portsmouth’s northernmost border. With victory after victory (just thought I would get the references to being ‘victorious’ out of the way), it felt as though it might disastrously shut down Portsmouth for the bank holiday. Perhaps that is destined to happen one year, but the strongest line-up yet spearheaded by Madness, Stereophonics and Elbow, along with abnormally gorgeous weather, made...

As can sometimes fortuitously happen in the case of your favourite artists, I discovered the band Buck & Evans completely by accident. They were playing the inaugural Ramblin’ Man Fair festival in 2015, buried in an unassuming mid-afternoon slot on the curiously titled ‘Outlaw’ Country Stage. I was expecting a couple of old timers dressed in dungarees behind a pair of battered acoustic guitars. Instead, I got a sensational ‘rock ‘n’ soul’ band; a guitarist whose playing belied his obviously modest years, a vocalist who’d have made Janis look twice and a rhythm section that would still have you...

Ramblin’ Man Fair, the festival run by Spirit Of Rock that celebrates the best in classic rock, prog, blues and country is now in its third year. Whilst Download has strayed into pop punk territory and Bloodstock books bands with comical names (Infected Dead, anyone?) the Ramblin’ Man focus is on an altogether more relaxed and ‘grown up’ weekend. It’s the festival where you’re more likely to find a mosh pit in the queue for an ice cream than you are down the front. And this means that it’s a really inclusive, friendly and welcoming place to be. This...

Ramblin’ Man Fair, a showcase of classic rock, prog and blues is now in its third year and continues to go from strength to strength. This year’s two main headliners, Extreme and ZZ Top it’s fair to say stirred up conflicting emotions amongst the fan base – with some in the Ramblin’ Man community feeling that neither band truly reflected the nature of the event. Personally, I couldn’t disagree more strongly with this sentiment – but tastes vary. The two sets were both brilliantly performed and hugely enjoyable but served up very different lighting from a photographic perspective. Extreme was challenging to say...

The twentieth edition of Truck Festival, held at Hill Farm, close to the sleepy village of Steventon in rural Oxfordshire boasted the finest lineup in the event’s history. From the metalcore of Bury Tomorrow to the pop punk of Roam to the indie pop rock of Superfood to the country twang of Catherine McGrath to the nostalgic sound of Franz Ferdinand and The Libertines, this TruckFest had it all. It also had rain, an awful lot of rain. But despite the best efforts of the British summer, Truck put smiles on faces wherever you looked. And so that was that: three days of rain, mud, slither and great...

One of the UK’s finest small festivals, Truck, has just had its twentieth birthday – and the site at Hill Farm, near the Oxfordshire village of Steventon celebrated in style with a guest list that belied the ‘small’ festival moniker. Boasting headliners Franz Ferdinand, The Libertines and The Vaccines on the main Truck Stage, plus a significant undercard and some of the brightest new talent around on the other six live music stages, there surely was something for everyone – and if you preferred your music to be DJ led, the Palm City arena with another two stages pumped...

RockShot are attending a few of the dates at this years’ musical celebration within the confines of Hyde Park, the Barclaycard sponsored BST (British Summer Time). There are five stages on site, with a total of six afternoon/nights of live music – and a lineup that accommodates a wide variety of tastes. I attended the middle of our three outings; where the accent was firmly on alt-rock, with artists such as Deaf Havana, Pixies and headliners on the impressive Great Oak Stage, Kings Of Leon. You can read my full review of Kings Of Leon here. In summary: great band, great music,...

You learn something every day. Today I learned that carrying a step ladder and camera rucksack on the London underground in the rush hour when it’s thirty degrees outside is something to be avoided at all costs. I had the rucksack because I was en route to photograph Nashville rootsy garage four-piece turned anthemic stadium rock band Kings Of Leon. I had the step ladder because I’d heard rumours that the stage at BST Hyde Park was higher than Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock. Sadly, the rumours turned out to be true. At around eight-thirty, the Followhill brothers and cousin...

Iconic frontmen of once iconic bands are all the rage at the moment. Noel Gallagher’s two solo albums are an established part of the landscape. Tom Chaplin (voice of post-britpop housewife’s favourites Keane) played a blinding support to Jeff Lynne (another iconic frontman of another once iconic band) at Wembley last weekend. Hell, even Phil Collins joined the party with a headline in Hyde Park during the week. It seems entirely appropriate therefore that Richard Ashcroft, iconic frontman of The Verve – surely one of the most iconic bands of the last thirty years – should be getting in...

Ramblin’ Man Fair, the festival celebrating the best in classic rock, prog, country and blues music returns to the beautiful Mote Park in Maidstone, Kent from 28 to 30 July. The park is one of the largest in South East England with more than 450 acres of mature parkland and a 30-acre lake. With multiple travel links via train (Ashford International, Maidstone East and Maidstone West in close proximity) and road (with three park and rides available around Maidstone). The festival site is also perfect for European festival goers with easy links to the London airports, Eurostar via Ashford...

The first album I bought was Out Of The Blue. The Electric Light Orchestra, that album, and those which followed and preceded it were the soundtrack to my childhood. The ELO obsession has followed me into middle age. I’m the sort of guy who can sing: “Yes, I’m turning to stone ‘cos you ‘ain’t coming home. Why aren’t you coming home if I’m turning to stone? You’ve been gone for so long and I can’t carry on. Yes, I’m turning, I’m turning, I’m turning to stone” at full speed without pausing for breath or breaking into a sweat. Kind...

On 18 August 2017, Coasts will release their eagerly anticipated new album This Life via High Time Records. Available to pre-order worldwide from 23 June, this record is the follow up to their self-titled debut chart album in 2016. First single from the new record, accompanied by its tongue in cheek political video is Take Me Back Home. With a powerful four-to-the-floor chorus, vocalist Chris Caines croons to the listener: “Take me back home, where the sky is glittering gold”, embodying the joys of the success the boys have had whilst touring the world. Following a sell-out UK club tour in May...

One of the best things about doing this is that you get to experience live music that doesn’t necessarily twitch the antennae. To be honest, it’s unlikely I’d have been mixing it with a sold-out crowd tonight at the Eventim Apollo Hammersmith for an evening with Arkansas rockers Evanescence were it not for the chance to snap them – but I’m very glad I did, on a number of levels. First of all, we got lucky with access right at the front. The band were known in journalistic circles for being a little camera shy on this tour, having...

For two and a half hours on Saturday night, Roger Hodgson encouraged a sell-out Royal Albert Hall crowd to momentarily park the bad stuff taking place in the world and concentrate instead on a collected shared love for music and humanity. It’s a speech he gives at every gig. At the time, I interpreted it as a sideswipe at the current incumbent in the White House – it’s a popular observation after all. Forty-eight hours later, Hodgson’s remarks now seem more prescient than ever. Roger Hodgson was the major song writing force of 1970s/1980s prog/rock/pop megastars Supertramp. He can...

Last night RockShot Magazine attended the first of two nights in the company of Roger Hodgson (‘the voice of Supertramp‘) currently being played at London’s Royal Albert Hall. The show was a sell out and Roger delighted the audience with many of his solo works, plus of course a healthy selection from the Supertramp back catalogue. The full review of the show will follow shortly but suffice it to say that an evening with Roger Hodgson is one not to be missed for anybody with even a passing interest in the music of Supertramp. The instantly recognisable tunes are...

In support of their sophomore album Cartwheels, twin sisters Catherine and Lizzy Ward Thomas brought their brand of Hampshire based Anglo-Nashville country music to the multiple-tiered beauty of the O2 Shepherds Bush Empire on Wednesday night. The new record, which holds the distinction of being the first country release to make number one in the UK Top Forty album chart, is a move away from some of the twangy Americana found on the debut, From Where We Stand. An altogether smoother, more pop-oriented sound envelops the new record. The most obvious comparison is that of Taylor Swift. Depending on...

Filmed at their headline show in London’s Alexandra Palace on 15 April (a gig that RockShot attended and which you can read about here), You Me At Six are back to reveal their video to Take On The World, a release from from their critically acclaimed 5th studio album Night People. 2017 got off to a flying start for YMAS with the release of their chart-topping album and the accolade of being the first band to land 15 consecutive Radio 1 A-Listed records. The band have just concluded their extensive European and UK tour and have also been announced for a headline...

After a first appearance on Later… with Jools Holland, confirmation of a set at BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend later this month and the announcement of a major headline tour, The Amazons have now shared a new video for the track Junk Food Forever. The Junk Food Forever video reflects the track’s themes – “the fear of being left alone in my dead little commuter town” says vocalist/guitarist Matt Thomson. The band power through a performance of the song in an empty living room – much to the consternation of a cleaner who remains on hand to keep the chaos tidy. The...

There was a nip in the air as I walked across Shepherds Bush Green tonight. We might be knocking on the door of summer, but momentarily talk of global warming has been suspended. This morning, I was back scraping the windscreen of the car and had icicles on my Ricicles. The green was, however, positively balmy compared to the chilled-out vibe going on at my destination, the Shepherd’s Bush Empire and an appointment with London four-piece Palace. Palace are described in their Apple Music bio as “an alternative blues-rock group with an extremely laid-back style”. Anybody speculatively attending one...

Another day, another gig. Tonight, I’m at the rather wonderful Alexandra Palace to see the continued progress of stadium rock band You Me At Six. The band, who hail from Weybridge in Surrey, released their fifth studio album Night People on 13th January and with it signaled a more expansive sound, befitting of the sorts of arenas they are routinely looking to fill. The Alexandra Palace gig was the last date of a UK tour taking in big spaces such as the SECC, Glasgow and Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff. They didn’t quite fill Ally Pally to its 10,250 capacity...

Public Service Broadcasting today announced details of a major UK tour in October in support of new album, Every Valley, released on 7th July. Stopping in twelve cities – including their biggest headline to date at London’s Eventim Apollo, plus a selection of some of the best live rooms across the country – the tour will be the first chance for fans across the UK to experience the band’s new album, the first single release of which was Progress. Every Valley is set against a backdrop of industrial decline and neglected and abandoned communities across the western world, but focuses on the history of...

If rock ‘n’ roll history tells us anything, it’s that brotherly love doesn’t necessarily apply between brothers. Ray and Dave Davies, Mark and David Knopfler, Liam and Noel Gallagher. If you invited them round for tea, it would be as well to give them paper plates. You can add to that list Chris and Rich Robinson of The Black Crowes, whose creative differences meant the wheels were off the ‘Crowes wagon between 2002 and 2005, and have been detached seemingly permanently since 2014. With the atmosphere between the brothers Robinson currently on the prickly side of incendiary, you’d...

There’s something quite exciting about being in on the ground floor of something big. Last time I got this feeling, it was photographing The Hunna in front of a rabid sell-out crowd at Boston Music Room (capacity 250). Within nine months, I was photographing them in front of a rabid sell-out crowd at the Shepherds Bush Empire (capacity 2000). Tonight, I’m at Dingwalls in the company of Reading four-piece The Amazons and I’ve got the feeling again. It’s a sell-out, and I’m expecting the crowd to be rabid. Of course, I’m no musical Svengali; everyone is talking about this...